First Listen – Fucked Up – David Comes To Life (NPR)

For a four-act musical with meta-narrative plot twists like something out of Thornton Wilder’s playOur Town, the album starts as a defiantly bright light in a bleak world. Even by drummer Jonah Falco’s (a.k.a. Guinea Beat) basic summation, David Comes to Life “is a love story”: Boy (David Eliade) has boring life, boy meets girl (Veronica Boisson), boy and girl plan act of grand protest. After a multiple-guitar introduction, “Queen of Hearts” serves as the ecstatic, bright-eyed anthem of the doomed lovers. By the effusively hopeful chorus, sung alternately by Abraham and Cults’ Madeline Follin, you’re already cheering for David and Veronica, much the way you’d cheer for Broadway lovers.